It's hot in the soap kitchen! (picture heavy)

There have been no posts for sometime and that is only because many batches of soap were being whipped up in the kitchen. My candle making cousin and I are getting ready for a sale around 'Diwali', more popularly known as the 'festival of lights' outside India.

Each batch of soap ended up surprising me. When I expected everything to go smoothly, I ended up with some pretty rough looking soap. And when I kept the design very simple anticipating overheating, the soap didn't even gel. Before I get all whiny, I'll just shut my trap!!

Plain Eucalyptus soapColored with wheatgrassWent as planned, just couldn't do away with the soda ash

Like the swirls, but had a very hard time with this soap.Mold lining bent, so not a perfect round.Scent blend: grapefruit and vanilla.Brown colored soap seized halfway into pouring! Yikes!Got some solid air pockets in some soaps.A lovely scent blend though!!

Leftover special.Made with soap scraps and leftover essential oils.These soaps are just for me!!

Vanilliscious!Scented with Vanilla fragrance oil.Things didn't go too smoothly this time.Controlled a slight volcano situation,by smoothing out the soap with a spatula :D

Basil, lemongrass and citronella scent blend. Great blend!!A dash of neem oil.Seize-o-rama!!Scoop, glop, smooth!!Scoop, glop, smooth!!Design turned out not quite like planned, but not totally off either.

Never in my wildest dreams did I expect Orange EO to misbehave.Scent blend: Orange, pimento berry.Jazzed up ever so slightly with calendula petals.

13 comments:

Oh my!!! Your experiments are amazing!!!! Loving all the different essential oils blends and colour experiments. That madder root colour is very intense!!! Let us know how the lather is, will it still be white or will there be a pink run off... Thanks for sharing all of these!! xo Jen

@Jennifer: Thank you so much for your lovely comment! I'm so happy you liked my experiments. The madder root soap doesn't run any color. The lather is white. Guess it is just like alkanet...no matter how dark the alkanet soap, the lather is white. Have a great week Jen!!

@Sonja: Thank you so much Sonja for stopping by and leaving such a sweet comment!

@Claudia: Such great compliments coming from such a wonderful soaper, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Wow, Nitya, so many soap and all so beautiful. I am really impressed by your madder root soap( have to try it for sure), by your superstar soap( love that sweet rose colour), by your cocoa and turmeric soap( great swirl and lovely EO combination).Ohh, but all your soaps are really beautiful and also the pics. I got some inspiration for my next soaps :)Thanks Nitya, and wish you a lot of success at your Diwali market.Have a lovely week!

Thank you so so much Natalia for such a wonderful comment! I liked the madder root too. Hopefully next time the soap behaves and gives me enough time to pour into a mold for a smoother texture. The last soap (superstar) was colored with calamine powder and I too love that delicate pink.

Look forward to see more of your soaps. I must say you are doing a terrific job!

Thank you so much Jenny! I just love how the last soap turned out. The temperatures here are quite high and the soap comes to trace at lightning speed. So I made two batches of soaps for the two layers to buy some time and it worked beautifully. :)Have a great week there!!

Thank you so much for your comment Marieke! It learnt a lot of tips from very helpful soapers around the world and I just share about my experiences and adventures in the soap kitchen. Have fun soaping!!